VistA provider Medsphere has a press release announcing its new CEO Ken Kizer, MD, MPH replacing Larry Augustin of VA Linux and Sourceforge fame: ‘…Kizer has long been an advocate of information technology as an enabler for improving healthcare safety and quality. He recognized the critical importance of healthcare IT when he was Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and pioneered the system-wide implementation of an electronic health record, bar code medication administration, and other IT innovations years before the healthcare industry embraced the importance of IT.

“In my new role as CEO, I will be able to focus on broadly disseminating a proven healthcare IT solution that has been adapted and improved for commercial healthcare use,” said Kizer. “I believe that Medsphere’s approach to healthcare IT represents a disruptive technology that has the potential to fundamentally change the healthcare IT paradigm and revolutionize the whole industry.”